Transforming Justice | Parole and probation, once thought a solution to mass incarceration, increased drastically since the 1980s. A new movement seeks to make it more equitable. Hope, racial equity and success are some of the values we want at the core o ...
19 Jul 2023 - Babak Zolfaghar... and Shannon Wight
TRANSFORMING JUSTICE | Reasons for increased crime vary, so solutions should too Violent crime is up in cities across the nation, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and now Portland — a city not usually on the high-crime map. Mothers are los ...
17 Nov 2021 - Shannon Wight
COMMENTARY | Voters face a choice: maintain Oregon's sanctuary status or further deepen racial disparities in our criminal justice system Often when we think about the disparities in our criminal justice system, we think about people who are arrested ...
12 Oct 2018 - Shannon Wight
COMMENTARY | Instead of 2nd women's prison, Oregon can invest in other efforts to strengthen families, communities The 2017 presidential election and the uncertainty it’s caused make it imperative that we work in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, ...
19 Jan 2017 - Shannon Wight
COMMENTARY | Trump's AG pick threatens progress in shrinking prison populations As I write this column, it’s been less than 48 hours since Donald Trump announced Sen. Jeff Sessions as his choice for attorney general. My chest tightens and tears fill ...
1 Dec 2016 - Shannon Wight
COMMENTARY | Prosecutors, legislators have power to choose how to better spend $10M on women convicted of crime At the end of September, the Emergency Board of the Oregon State Legislature will consider a request from the Department of Corrections for nea ...
18 Aug 2016 - Shannon Wight
Partnership for Safety and Justice and our allies made important legislative progress in the area of smarter public safety Each legislative session has its own unique feel, but few people at the Capitol could have anticipated the roller-coaster ride of Or ...
6 Aug 2015 - Shannon Wight
Diverse interests come together to support the state’s promising program for criminal justice reform On May 14, Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis released its March 2015 quarterly review of the state’s economic health. (You can read the entire report, ...
25 May 2015 - Shannon Wight
Oregon looks to model Washington's Family Offender Sentencing Alternative to allow certain parents to serve sentences in community supervision rather than prison Oregon has recently committed to an exciting new path to improve its public safety syste ...
27 Mar 2015 - Shannon Wight and Elizabeth Hilliard
Willamette Week’s May 7 piece on juvenile justice in Oregon, “ Spare the Jail, Spoil the Child,” demanded a reaction. As the title suggests, the article posited that Multnomah County in particular, and Oregon in general, need to use more jail beds to addr ...
17 Jun 2014 - Shannon Wight